Parliament Question: Monitoring of Essential Medicines in Hospitals

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICALS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2199 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 31st JULY 2026 Monitoring of Essential Medicines in Hospitals 2199. Shri C N Annadurai: Shri Selvam G: Dr. Rani Srikumar: Will the Minister of CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has made any assessment regarding the availability and uninterrupted supply of essential medicines in Government hospitals, Primary Health Centres and Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras (PMBJKs) in Tamil Nadu during the last three, years if so, the details thereof, year-wise; (b) the details of the mechanism put in place to monitor the availability, stocking and timely replenishment of essential medicines in healthcare facilities in Tamil Nadu; (c) whether any steps have been taken to strengthen the procurement, storage and distribution of essential medicines to ensure uninterrupted availability in urban and rural areas of the State, if so, the details thereof; (d) whether additional PMBJKs have been sanctioned/proposed to be established in underserved areas of the said State; and (e) the measures being taken to ensure the continuous availability of quality essential medicines at affordable prices in the said State? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS (SMT. ANUPRIYA PATEL) (a) to (e): As per information provided by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW), to ensure availability of essential drugs and reduce the Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) of the patients visiting the public health facilities, Government has rolled out the Free Drugs Service Initiative (FDSI) under National Health Mission (NHM). Under this, financial support is provided to States / Union Territories for provision of free essential medicines in public health facilities based on the requirements posed by them in their Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs) within their overall resource envelope.MoH&FW has recommended facility wise Essential Medicines List (EML) to be made available at the public healthcare facilities: i. Sub Health Centre Ayushman Arogya Mandir (SHC-AAMs) - 113 ii. Primary Health Centre Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (PHC-AAMs) - 179 iii. Community Health Centers (CHCs) - 301 iv. Sub-District Hospital - 318 v. District Hospital (DHs) - 381 Support under the scheme is available for procurement of drugs and strengthening /setting up robust systems of procurement, Quality Assurance, supply chain management and warehousing, prescription audit, grievance redressal, dissemination of Standard Treatment guidelines and establishment of IT enabled platform DVDMS (Drugs & Vaccine Distribution Management System) for monitoring the real status of procurement and availability of essential medicines. To facilitate the monitoring of supply chain management activity at National level, a Central Dashboard has been developed. Also, under NHM, Common Review Missions (CRM) are conducted annually to assess and monitor the progress and implementation status of various schemes including FDSI. Quality of drugs procured, under FDSI is ensured through the operational guidelines of the initiative that:- i. All drugs must be sourced from Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) compliant manufacturers through robust procurement mechanism. ii. Post supply testing of every batch before distributing to the health facilities. Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices Bureau of India (PMBI), the implementing agency of the PMBJP scheme, continuously monitors the availability of medicines including essential medicines at Jan Aushadhi Kendras, (JAKs) including those operating in Tamil Nadu. In order to address any supply gaps and ensure smooth supply and availability of products at JAKs, the following measures are in place: (i) Since September 2024, stocking by JAKs of 200 commonly used medicines, consisting of the 100 top-selling medicines in the scheme product basket and 100 fast-selling medicines in the market, has been incentivised, under which JAK owners are eligible for monthly incentive based on the stocks that they maintain for these medicines. (ii) An end-to-end information-technology-enabled supply chain system is in place to connect a robust supply chain system consisting of five warehouses and a growing network of distributors across the country, currently numbering 42. (iii) In addition, with a view to ensure availability of commonly used products, 400 fast- moving products are monitored regularly by Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau of India (PMBI), the scheme implementing agency, and demand for the same is estimated on a continuous basis. Further, steps have been taken to digitise the estimation method to augment the procurement process.With a view to further expand the coverage of the scheme, the Government has set a target to open 25,000 JAKs by March 2027. Government has adopted a franchise-like model for opening of Jan Aushadhi Kendras (JAKs). Any individual entrepreneurs, non-governmental organisations, societies, trusts, firms, private companies, etc., can apply for opening of Jan Aushadhi Kendras, through the scheme’s website (www.janaushadhi.gov.in) across the country including those in Tamil Nadu. To facilitate opening of Jan Aushadhi Kendras in the underserved areas, PMBI is regularly writing letters to the concerned administration/district magistrate for providing free space to the applicants in government hospitals. The product basket under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Yojna has 2,110 medicines and 315 surgicals, medical consumables and devices, covering all major therapeutic groups, such as cardiovascular, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-infectives, anti-allergic and gastro-intestinal medicines and nutraceuticals. Almost all generic medicines included in the National List of Essential Medicines, except lab reagents and vaccines, are part of this product basket. Continuous monitoring and appropriate corrective measures are undertaken to minimize stock shortage and ensure availability of essential medicines across the country including the Tamil Nadu. *****